Caetano Veloso, an eight-time Latin Grammy winner and two-time Grammy winner, will be celebrated as the 2012 Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year on Wednesday, November 14, in Las Vegas, it was announced today by Gabriel Abaroa Jr., President/CEO of The Latin Recording Academy. Songs from Veloso's catalog will be performed by an array of artists and friends of the honoree. A portion of the net proceeds from the gala will benefit Veloso's chosen charity, Fundación Viva Cazuza in Brazil—a not-for-profit HIV prevention and treatment organization for children and young people—as well as The Latin Recording Academy's outreach and education programs. The celebration will precede the XIII Annual Latin Grammy Awards, which will be held at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas and will be broadcast live on the Univision Network on Thursday, November 15, at 8 PM ET.

"Caetano Veloso has become the preeminent ambassador of Brazilian music and culture," said Abaroa. "It is difficult to find a man with such immense talent, passion and dedication to his creative projects—whether in music, writing or activism—and it is The Latin Recording Academy and its Board of Trustees' great pleasure to celebrate a man of limitless talent and commitment. By celebrating Caetano, we celebrate Brazil, and we look forward to honoring his amazing career and music."

A musician, producer, arranger, writer, painter, and political activist, Veloso is considered one of the most influential Brazilians since the '60s. He has nearly 40 recordings to his credit, including 14 on Nonesuch—the most recent of which is Live at Carnegie Hall, which documented a special collaborative concert with friend David Byrne and was released this past March. Absorbing musical and aesthetic ideas from sources as diverse as The Beatles, concrete poetry, the French Dadaists, and the Brazilian modernist poets of the 1920s, Veloso—together with Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, his sister Maria Bethania, and a number of other poets and intellectuals—founded a movement, Tropicália, that permanently altered the course of his country’s popular music.

For information on purchasing tickets or tables to the 2012 Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year celebration for Caetano Veloso, please contact The Latin Recording Academy at ticketing@grammy.com. For additional details on the Latin Grammy Awards, go to latingrammy.com.